The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.139

v4.c21.139

When the monsoon of 1750 was drawing to a close, and the Dasara festival ushered in the campaigning season, the Peshwā thought himself sufficiently secure to set out for Hyderābād. The old Nizām had died on 1 June, 1748, at Burhānpur, aged seventy-nine, and a war of succession had broken out among his sons. The Peshwā, in return for important concessions, had agreed to support the elder Ghāzi-ud-dīn against Salābat Jang.³ His real aim, however, was no less than the annexation of Hyderābād to the Marāthā empire. But he had reckoned without Tārā Bāī. Scarcely had he turned his back, than that indefatigable old queen, upon whom years seemed only to confer fresh energy, organised a far-reaching conspiracy to throw off for ever the yoke of the hated Brāhman. She found no lack of support among the Marāthā chiefs, who were smarting under the Sangola agreement. Her first step, however, was to get into her power the miserable puppet who sat on the throne of the great Shivājī. Having seized the fort of Sātārā, she invited Rām Rājā to a banquet and cast him into prison (24 November, 1750). She then prevailed upon another Marāthā lady, Umā Bāī, the widow of Khande Rāo Dābhāde, to call in her late husband’s old lieutenant, the Gāikwār, from Gujarāt. Dāmājī Gāikwār was nothing loath. He advanced upon Sātārā with 15,000 men in order to link up with the forces of Tārā Bāī.